Here's to The Night
by bdrake07
Summary: He’s the only one who understands her. He’s the only one who feels her pain. He’s the only one who helps her toast to the nights and not despise them. InuSan CHARACTER DEATHS


Disclaimer: I own neither Inuyasha nor the Eve 6 song "Here's to the Night".

* * *

**Here's to The Night**

Every time she watches the fire twist in the shadowed night, she thinks back to better times. Full of friendship and laughter, things she had never had. The nights when the pain in her heart didn't hurt so much, because she had people who loved her. She doesn't feel alone, that isn't the proper word. She feels… misunderstood. The one person who truly understood her is gone, once the road they traveled on came to a fork. She hasn't seen him in six years.

She's a widow, and she winces with pain every time the night comes now- not like before when she looked forward to the peace and quiet of the darkness. But she hates the darkness now; it reminds her of black holes, black holes that have sucked up the ones she loved. And… wells. Old age. Curses and witchcraft. She now hates so many things she can't count.

* * *

_"Don't leave me, Kagome, STOP! Please don't leave me, I love you!"_

_She stares at him, the pain and sorrow crystal clear in her chocolate orbs. But she knows what has to be done. They live in different worlds- sometimes what you think is fate is only a mere mockery. She smiles faintly._

_"I love you too. Forever and always."_

_She drops down into her world, and he lets loose a howl of pure, utter despair. He's never expressed this kind of emotion in his entire life. They're both gone… both the women he cared so much about, and he has nowhere to turn. _

_If only he knew he just had to turn around, and her open arms would be waiting._

* * *

He walks, aimlessly, not really caring where he ends up. His life is pointless; really, he never does anything worth remembering. And he keeps all his feelings inside, because no one understands. The one person who really understood, a long time ago, could be dead. He doesn't know. He doesn't remember these things, or bother keeping up with them. 

He smells cherry blossoms and lifts his head- it reminds him of her, her scent swirling around him. She always smelled like cherries and evergreen and tears. She shed so many tears in her lifetime that they were permanently welded to her overall appearance. He smells the evergreen now, and salt stings his nostrils. His ears perk up- and he sees a fire flickering in the distance.

* * *

_She walks in, and all of his things are gone. He waits by the doorway, wincing at her shocked face as she takes in what's around her._

_"It's time." He says. _

_"T…time for what…?" Her eyes search his face for an answer, but it can only be found in the painful words he is uttering._

_"I'm going to die, Sango. I must leave, lest I hurt you."_

_"Miroku! You're hurting me now!" She protests, feeling tears pooling in her eyes. She NEVER used to cry. But in the past few years she's done so much crying, she feels hollow inside._

_"I'm sorry, Sango. I love you… more than I can say." _

_She only has time to see his wet face before he turns and is gone._

* * *

She looks up, up to the sky at the stars and the heavens. On a clear night such as this, she stares for a long time, finding the outlines of her long gone friends. Then she can only gaze for awhile, before her chest starts to ache and she remembers that the sky is black and dark and endless and eternal. Then the wind comes and her whole body stings with deep, unspoken pain. She used to love the wind. 

She shivers slightly, wishing she had something- or someone- more than a measly fire. Sometimes fire makes her hurt too, because she remembers how warm she felt when she looked at her fire wielding friends. Her hair whips around her face. She wears it loose now, never restrained or bound by anything. She had cut it a bit, wishing to start a new life. But it grew back, and so did her memories.

* * *

_He is there, hidden, during the battle to end all battles, and he sees her. At first, he doesn't realize who she is- her hair is much shorter- but then he sees her giant hiraikotsu. She throws it with ease, as always. But he isn't concentrating on her as a whole, just on the look that is tight on her face. Determination. Hollow, unfeeling determination. A determination that could do no good._

_Then she disappears into the battle and he jumps in himself, full of his own determination to avenge the ones he loved. He doesn't see her again after that. He leaves quickly after it ends, knowing somehow, without even seeing it, that more of his friends were gone. He senses it, senses that the kitsune and her youkai have surrendered their lives. It is only her now, and himself. _

_But he can't face her, because he needs her so much.

* * *

_

He slows his pace as the wavering light grows larger. He's suddenly afraid, and he almost laughs at the thought. Him? Afraid? But he doesn't laugh, because he knows the sound will come out hollow and empty.

He thinks about turning around, that it probably isn't her anyway. The forest is filled with cherries and evergreen trees, and the tears may be just his own. He finds that strange too, that he has found the ability to cry. But he continues, because his heart has lightened. Even if it isn't her, the thought makes him feel a little bit warmer.

He never thought he loved her, so what is this feeling? It's just that she is all he has, after everyone is gone, she's it. All of it. And she understands him and his pain and everything about him so perfectly! No one has understood him like she has, even if the common bond they share is immense amounts of suffering.

* * *

_She comes to the battle silent, and she stays that way until she is alone with her brother. She has come to release him, and even if he can't hear her, she's going to speak. _

_She watched the others die, and her entire body burns with yearning to die, herself. She's going to kill her brother… and then she's going to kill herself._

_"Kohaku…" She stares into his blank, emotionless eyes. "I'm here to save you."_

_He says nothing, he only attacks._

_"I love you!" She sobs, as she enters the battle. "I love you, and I am going to rescue you! I promise!" It only lasts for a moment before his puppeteer permits him to let down his guard. He knows that this time, nothing will stop her. And nothing does._

_"Kohaku!" She kneels down before her near dead brother. Her tears fall into his open wound. The glow from his back fades as she pulls from him a crystal like shard. She places it next to his body and raises her katana. "I'm going to follow you." She says to him._

_Then the face erupts in her mind. "I need you, Sango." It says. "You're all I have." _

_The katana clatters on the rocks beside her brother's still body, and she thinks she hears a howl in the distance.

* * *

_

Her ears are hardly as in tune as his, but she can hear well enough. And her nose is hardly as sensitive, but she has never forgotten his smoky scent- smoke and the sea, and sometimes blood. But he hasn't fought in so long, the blood has faded. It has washed away.

She is turning her head to look into the distance when the air swirls around her and she gasps. It's a presence. His presence. She turns sharply and stares through the fire, squinting in the dim light for a glimpse of his figure.

Then, as if the skies and the world and the gods finally, _finally_ recognize her hatred of the darkness, the sun comes up, the world is bathed in light and she can _see_. She can see farther into the distance, and into places that she had never known before. She can see beauty and she can see him.

She stands, and the wind picks up, but it isn't as bothersome as it was before. In fact, she feels some of her first love in the wind, the way it envelops her and makes her feel as if she can soar into the sky.

She knows it's him. The ears are hard to miss, and the bright red kimono stands out in the forest of green. It's just that he's crying. She's never seen him cry. She's never seen him _smile_. She takes one step forward.

"…Sango?" He whispers. "You…"

Her tears flow freely. She thought she had cried herself empty, but the sight of him has suddenly filled her with emotions she thought she could never feel again.

"Inuyasha." She smiles, her lip trembling. "Yes."

Then he is holding her, his fingers tangling themselves in her coal black hair, untamed and free, flying in the wind. Like they are.

Her arms wrap around his neck tightly. She is never letting go. Never- because when she lets go of things, they never come back to her. She can tell him this- he understands.

"I love you," She cries, "I love you!"

"I know." He murmurs. "I love you. You're all I have."

She knows this is true. He's the only one who understands her. He's the only one who feels her pain. He's the only one who helps her toast to the nights and not despise them. Now that she has someone to spend her nights with, they won't hurt so much. This is how she knows. All they have is each other…

And that's all they need.

Fin


End file.
